Reflection
on the past two weeks, 6th February 2017
At last, some
definite progress to report! First things first, though – I finally got my marks
back for my dissertation and I got a very good mark. I was really pleased. My
tutor also seemed to “get” what I was trying to say and the way I was trying to
say it. That gave me a real boost, which was much-needed, and I felt all my
efforts last term had been recognised.
I had a good
tutorial towards the end of January which helped to confirm the viability of an
idea I’d had, to base an abstract painting on a map of the Mabgate area. Sharon
(my tutor) liked some of the marks I’d made, and the plan is to incorporate at least
some of these into the painting. There will, hopefully, be the usual method of
choosing colours based on what I saw (see this week 46 blogpost for more info on what I actually did see), and
incorporating the shapes I encountered into layers within the painting.
I’ve gone for
300gsm cartridge paper which is now stretched and which I’ll gesso to help me
use charcoal and graphite on it. I like the acrylic paper but I didn’t think
this would work so well if I were to try to use charcoal. We’ll see! This is
all a learning curve for me – I’ve only stretched one sheet of paper since I
left school – and I was unsure how long to soak this paper for. I’ve not used
cartridge paper of this weight, but one of the things I want to do this term is
to learn more about paper, so this is a good opportunity to learn something.
I’ve started a
sketch of the proposed piece (it’s in two parts) and I feel quite happy with
the shapes which are based on the streets. I have experimentation to do with
the layering, and the colours I’ve put down so far aren’t right, but that’s the
point of making a sketch. I have another tutorial in a couple of days so the
next two evenings will be spent applying further colour to the sketch so I can
talk this through with Sharon. I feel much happier working with this methodical
approach although I am still concerned about time.
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| Colours in progress |
I finally managed
to get back into the print room last Thursday and I spent a good day in there. I
printed the office block that’s being gentrified several times. Susie, one of
the technicians, helped me get a better print by packing on top of the
paper/plate with tissue paper. I did some experimental inking, some of which
worked and some didn’t. I’m not sure where next with this plate but some of the
latest prints are OK. These are all on 140 gsm cartridge paper but I’ve been
recommended to use Snowdon paper so I will be giving this a try in due course.
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| An experiment that probably didn't work |
On Thursday
lunchtime I laser cut some shapes that I’d drawn based on the map of the
Mabgate area. I also cut out the word “self”. There is a self-storage place
next to the gentrifying office block and I kept coming back to the idea of “self”…
storing some of yourself, or leaving some of yourself behind perhaps? Then it
was back to the print room for an afternoon shift of monoprinting. I used the
resists that I’d laser cut and I was quite pleased with the results. I didn’t
clean the plate at all during the afternnon and this gave some nice layering. I
used cadmium yellow and process cyan (my super favourites). This is because the
self-storage place signs are blue and yellow, and also I wanted to get to a
green that was reminiscent of the old City of Mabgate pub’s sage green exterior
tiles. The colours mixed up to a nice leaf green – not exactly the colour of
the tiles, but a nice Spring-like colour for the time of year.
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| self discovery |
Using text in the
monoprint was probably something that I’d resisted for a long time but I liked
the result. I thought it gave a bit more interest to the prints. There were
three that will be suitable for use at the MMU PGR conference although the
registration could have been better! I think these prints represent a little
development step compared to the work I did last Summer and I really want to
work with more laser-cut shapes.
It was a bit of a downer
that the print room was booked for a class on Friday as I’d got my print groove
on and would have liked to continue where I left off on Thursday. However,
there was a silent crit in class so I joined in with that. I worked with two
first-year students, whom I’d not previously met, Diane and Hattie. Their
comments were mighty useful. I showed two of the monoprints and two prints of
the gentrifying office block. They felt that the colourful prints were
reminiscent of nature and the organic, whereas the office block prints were
hard and represented the physical. This was insightful for me as I am grappling
with how to present the two types of prints together, and this could provide an
entry point; the static and the chaotic, perhaps? They also recognised that the
monoprints were based on map shapes, which was great! When I explained that the
prints were based on the Mabgate area and why I’d used the colours, Hattie
immediately mentioned the green tiles of the former pub, which was really
encouraging. The only thing they didn’t “get” was the text. Perhaps it needs a
bit more thought as to exactly how I deploy it.
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| Crit time: working with Hattie and Diane, enjoying looking at each others' work |
It’s been good to
be so productive after rather a fallow time. I promised myself February would
be fruitful, and so far, so good.
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